RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Sunday offered funeral prayers of officers and soldiers, who embraced martyrdom in a helicopter crash at United Nations Mission in Congo, at Chaklala Garrison.
The COAS, serving and retired military personnel including UN officials and relatives of the martyrs attended the funeral prayer, said an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR).
The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), known as (MONUSCO), on Saturday repatriated the bodies of eight UN peacekeepers, including six Pakistanis, who were tragically killed when their helicopter crashed on March 29 in the country’s North Kivu province.
The UN helicopter was on a reconnaissance mission on an area where there have been clashes between the M23 rebel group and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) in recent days.
“An investigation is under way”, the announcement said. In Goma, the capital of DRC’s North Kivu province, shortly before the repatriation of the bodies, a memorial service took place in the presence of the Under-Secretary-General of the Department of Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, DRC Government representatives senior UN Officials and members of the Diplomatic Corps.
“Whenever we come together in sad circumstances such as these, we recognize even more the immense sacrifice made by all of our fallen peacekeepers,” Under-Secretary-General Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the gathering.
“These peacekeepers have paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect innocent people and create conditions for a peaceful and sustainable environment,” the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in DRC, Ms Bintou Keita said. “To the bereaved families, we express our solidarity, our empathy, and our compassion,” she added.
On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issues a statement expressing his sorrow over the tragic incident and offered his “sincere” condolences to the bereaved families and to the governments of the three of countries.
